


Arrival

by readridinghood



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Stiles, Daddy!Derek, Derek and Stiles are Mates, Gay Sex, Head Canon 312 happened on Oct 18 2013, I haven't decided yet if I can write that, I've Never had to warn for that before, Kid Fic, Like Most of the things that people do who have Gay Sex, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mpreg, Post Episode 312, Post season 3a, Rated Explicit for Later Chapters and Graphic Depictions, Slow Burn, daddy!stiles, jossed by 3B, possible knotting, sterek, with QAF its sort of implied
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2014-04-02
Packaged: 2018-01-05 02:03:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readridinghood/pseuds/readridinghood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><img/><br/>Since Derek and Cora left, Beacon Hills has been quiet. The darkness came for Stiles, but he seems to be the only one so far. The stillness in everyone's lives has bothered him as much as the darkness in his own. Being the only one waiting for the other shoe to drop has caused him to draw away from everyone, except Lydia, who is becoming his best friend. Lydia throws Stiles a birthday party and Derek and Cora are in attendance, having finally arrived back in BH. If this was a RomCom, Stiles probably wouldn't have anything left to wish for when he blows out his candles. But it's not, his life has always been way too complicated and manic to make enough sense to produce a good story for a screenplay. As bad as he thought it'd be, his birthday is turning out better than he expected. It's time to blow out candles and Stiles' birthday wish gets interrupted, which to him might be predictable, and a little funny, but what happens next is far from it.<br/>His 'derailed wish' will change everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. God Save the Queen

**Author's Note:**

> This is an mpreg, but it isn't going to be all that fluffy. Yes, there will be some comic relief in here from time to time and definitely some love, but this story is dealing with what I've perceived (before the trailers for S3B aired) would be the supernatural expressions (some good and some terrible) that were being called to Beacon Hills. So this is definitely a Canon AU from 312 onward  
> Also, this is not betad, but I've tried to proofread it myself. If anyone wants to volunteer for the job, that would be fantastic or if you see grammar / punctuation errors you would like to report in a comment, that's good too.  
> (This is a work in progress!)

**Arrival  
Chapter One: “God Save the Queen” **

_But now the prom queen, the prom queen_  
 _Is crying, sitting outside of my door_  
 _See, you never know how_  
 _How everything can turn around_  


**Wednesday, March 26, 2014**

There was a time in Stiles’ life, in the not too distant past, when Lydia Martin sitting on his bed, rubbing his back and talking in a soothing soft voice, urging him toward wakefulness, would only occur in a fantasy. If it indeed had happened in reality, back then, Stiles would have instantly sprung a boner at the very sight of her and the ‘oh my god Lydia is touching me while I’m in bed’ realization, would have caused him to come so fast and hard his shaking body would’ve propelled her to the floor. It’s probably a good thing he got over that infatuation, because he might never have lived that down.

Still, even without the crush on Lydia, he felt mortified to have her see him weeping like a baby, no matter how many times it has happened. Stiles rubbed at his eyes as he sat up and turned away from her. The sunset’s light shone into his bedroom, bathing the room in pink and orange light and he knew if he turned around, her strawberry-blond hair would look beautiful shining in the last of that day's light. He silently weighed the pros and cons regarding him losing the love he once felt for her because if he were the boy he’d been a year ago, just thinking of her beauty would be enough to make him happy.

Happy. He’s not sure what that means anymore.

“How long were you asleep?”

Lydia’s voice, when it was just the two of them alone, sounded the way Stiles always knew it would. The tone is lower, less nasally and purely genuine. He wiped all of the tears off his face and looked at his alarm clock. “Since I got home from school three hours ago.”

“Hmm.” She didn’t say anything else, because she’d experienced this situation with Stiles far too often. Lydia knew that if Stiles’ dreams were anything worth sharing, he’d tell her. When he didn't, it meant the nightmares were a jumble of random horrific images and experiences that Stiles couldn't make sense of.

Stiles turned to face her, dragging his legs up against his chest and circling them with arms. He rested his chin on his knees as he looked at her unguarded expression and saw pure sadness. “I’m all right,” he tried to assure her.

She nodded, not because she believed it, but because she knew that he wanted her to and pressing the issue would only make him feel worse. “Are you going to Prom?”

Stiles was startled by the question and his eyes widened as he thought that maybe Lydia didn’t know that he was no longer in love with her, waiting for her to let him sweep her off her feet. It was not like he’d told her, but who tells someone something like that? He quickly moved to sit beside her, his bare feet hitting the cold floor, which caused goosebumps to bloom upon his flesh. “Lydia…”

She nudged his shoulder with hers and laughed, staring into his eyes with a glimmer in her own. “I wasn’t asking you to go as my date, Stiles. Stop freaking out.”

Stiles sucked in a breath and felt his cheeks flushing. “Right, right, of course you weren’t. I mean, I know we’re friends now, but that doesn’t mean you’d actually…”

“I want us to go as friends,” Lydia interrupted.

“Friends?” In his hysteria of thinking she was about to ask him to go as her date, he’d forgotten, and he didn’t really know how but… “What about Aiden?”

“What… what about him?”

Stiles leaned away and stared down at her. He watched as her face heated with color, causing her to look down at her lap and she nervously picked at an errant thread on the collar of her shirt. She’d been upset, sad, long before she’d found him in the throes of a nightmare. “Did you and Aiden break up?”

In a seemingly manic move, Lydia bolted up from the bed and paced in front of Stiles, her posture straightened by confidence and her blush vanished and her lips formed a tight line. “I would not call what we happened, breaking up.” She paused in front him and put her hands on her hips, one foot tapping the floor. “He…” Lydia’s voice wobbled on the word and just as sudden as her angry confidence appeared, it disintegrated. She dropped back onto the bed beside him so abruptly it caused the mattress to shake and she bounced against him. “He… the bastard,” she said tearfully, “he was… I caught him with…”

Stiles wrapped his arm around Lydia and forced away the anger he felt on her behalf. If he focused on any negative emotions, he’d end up in the psych ward again. Deaton suggested that while dealing with anything that caused negative emotions, Stiles should anchor himself to moments that were joyful and think of them as if they were his reality. So now, he brought up one of his favorite memories and closed his eyes, remembering the time Scott peed his pants from laughing so hard at a joke Stiles had told him. This way of thinking caused a confusing fight in his brain and he often felt like he was not allowed to have his physical pain and emotions validated by his conscious mind. The psychologist had given him a completely different approach, wanting him to immerse himself in all of his emotions, no matter how dark they were. He’d tried to make Stiles believe that if he did that, it would be akin to purging them from his system, and one day he’d wake up and feel better. Instead, the best plan was for him to pretend they didn’t exist and do his best to look at the world through rose colored glasses.

“…nose and crooked teeth. I can’t believe he’d even touch her!”

Stiles felt guilty as he realized that to keep the darkness at bay, he hadn’t heard much of Lydia’s story. “Wait, who was Aiden with?”

“That bitch Veronica Pearson,” Lydia said. She wiped away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks, attempted a smile and waved his inattention away. “You probably don’t even know her. The only guys that do are total pricks who will fuck anything, so surprise, surprise, right? Aiden is a prick! She’s an honest slut though, so I’m not even mad at her.” Lydia made a hiccuping noise in her throat that Stiles knew meant she was valiantly trying to ward off a sob. “I’m pissed with Aiden. He didn’t even have the brains to lock his front door.”

“Ethan wasn’t home?” Stiles asked. Ethan was a lot different from Aiden, and though they were twins, he doubted that Ethan would try to cover for his brother, but he wanted to know for sure. If someone kept secrets like that, they couldn't be trusted, and Stiles didn't want Danny getting hurt.

“He was at Danny’s house, it’s their six month anniversary or something,” Lydia said, breathing out slowly. “I swore I wasn’t gonna cry about this. Damn it!”

Stiles snorted and when Lydia glared at him he quickly apologized, “Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t… that wasn’t about you. It’s just… you came over here to talk to me and found me bawling my eyes out. Your boyfriend cheated on you, he’s a dick, you’re allowed to cry about it.”

“You're allowed to cry too,” Lydia quipped, and held his hand. “But I’m not even… I’m upset that we’re not going to be a couple anymore. I liked having someone, even if I wasn't in love with him.”

Stiles squeezed her hand. “Not that I know what that’s like, but I’m sure it’s nice having someone and either way it's got to suck when they fuck you over.”

Lydia gazed him with a watery smile and rolled her glassy eyes. “You’re going to know what it's like. I know you will. In the meantime…”

“We have each other,” Stiles said.

“You are such a dork,” Lydia said playfully, managing a small grin.

“I know I am, I don't pretend to be anything else. So, did you at least kick him in the balls when you caught him? I mean, what happened exactly?”

“No, I did not kick him in the balls.” She gave him a sneaky look. “I’m saving that for school tomorrow.”

Stiles laughed. “Of course you are.”

“I’ll spare you the details I’d like burned from mind, because I know you don’t actually think Aiden is attractive…”

“His personality and the way he acts toward me helps with that a lot,” Stiles defended. Though it was true, he definitely knew Aiden and Ethan had nice bodies, but he wasn’t a big fan of their faces. They were buttafaces in his book, which it’s not like he really had a book detailing people whom he found physically attractive, but if he did…

“Sooooo…after I flung open his bedroom door and caught him mid-ya’know, he wraps a sheet around him, the ones I bought him for his birthday by the way, and tells me…tells **me** that we’re over!”

Stiles’ mouth hung open in shock for a moment before the power of speech came back. “You mean that Aiden dum…”

Lydia slapped a hand over Stiles’ mouth. “Shh! That did not happen. Because you see…” she sniffed, “In my mind I was telling him that we were breaking up as I opened his door. I mean, I broke up with him first. He couldn’t have… ya’know.”

“Right,” Stiles told her, “you knew you were going to break up with him before he even realized he was caught.”

“Exactly.” She gave him a light kiss on the cheek. “If you ever do decide to _come out_ , you could totally be my new gay BFF.”

Stiles cringed and asked, “Was I really that invisible to you?”

“What are you talking about? When?”

“ _Before_ ,” Stiles said. Between Lydia and Stiles, ‘before’ was referred to as the time before the darkness captured him, invading every moment of his life. With Scott, when either of them drew out the word ‘before’, it meant the life they led before Scott was bitten.

“No,” Lydia said, huffing. “I meant… Well, I know how you feel about De…”

Stiles mirrored her tactic and put his hand over her mouth. “No.” He shook his head firmly. "We're not going there."

“Sometimes gay men who are too afraid to admit they’re gay, fixate on women who appear to be the ideal woman for any straight man.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “If I didn’t like you so much, I might think you’re a conceited bitch.”

Lydia blanched and punched his arm. “If I didn’t like you so much, I’d call you an asshole. I am going to point out that I said the word ‘appear’, because you know I am far from a straight man’s ideal woman, Stiles. I’m a fucking Banshee for crying out loud.”

“Truly, you are,” Stiles chortled, “a Banshee, for crying out loud.”

Lydia crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue. “Stop trying to change the subject. We’re talking about my new gay BFF taking me to Prom.”

“We are not talking about your gay BFF taking you to Prom,” Stiles replied in a slow tone. “Not if you’re referring to me. I am not gay, Lydia, but I will take the position of being your BFF.”

“Stiles, Stiles, Stiles, doth protest too much,” Lydia said. “I just don’t understand. It’s not like anyone cares who you…”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure there are some people who would care,” Stiles intoned dryly. “That isn’t the point. I am not completely gay. I am bisexual. I assure you that I was completely ready to do the deed with…”

“Okay, fine, but being bisexual means that you’re half-gay, so between you and I…”

“Half-gay?” Stiles gasped, laughing. “Where do you get this shit?”

“I have a cousin in Illinois that I used to visit every summer, she coined that term like ten years ago when I asked why she dated both girls and boys. I didn’t even know what it meant at the time because I was like five. So, she’s not attracted to straight men, she likes the bisexual men and she likes women, so when people need a label she goes with half-gay. That’s like you. You like the gay and bisexual men…”

“Bisexual man,” Stiles corrected her. “One! I like _one_ bisexual man and I'm attracted to a lot of different types of women.”

“Whatever. Hey, how did you find out he was bisexual? ‘Cause I’m usually pretty good at picking that up and I just… Other than the times I’ve seen the spark between you two…”

“Hold the train,” Stiles interrupted her. “What are you talking about? What spark? No, no, no, no, you know what? I don’t want to know. Don’t answer me because I do not want to hear your version of events. Anyway, it’s not like he keeps it a secret. I simply asked him one day and he told me.”

“How did you bring that up?” Lydia curiously asked. “I just can’t imagine it fitting into a conversation that…”

“If I agree to go to Prom as your new half-gay BFF, will you please, please, please drop the subject?”

“On one condition,” Lydia said.

Stiles winced. “Whenever you say shit like that, I end up regretting our friendship.”

“Like that would ever happen,” she said confidently. “My condition is that you let me throw you the best birthday party ever.”

“No fucking way,” Stiles said. “The last thing I want is…”

“To be surrounded by your friends?” Lydia cut in, raising one eyebrow. “Look, you pretend like you’re just fine being around them at school, or when we go out, you can do the same for a couple of hours at your birthday party. You _need_ this, Stiles.”

“I really don’t,” Stiles insisted. “I play Spring Lacrosse, even though I didn’t want to, because you said it was a way for me to keep my bond with the guys without having to do a lot of personal interaction. I go out to the movies with all of you guys almost every Friday night, because that doesn’t allow for deep conversations. I help you tutor Scott in English and Chemistry because it gives us a little more time alone to make things seem normal, but I'm in a position of authority there and it allows me to call the shots…”

“By making him feel guilty because he’s a bad example as an Alpha if he doesn’t graduate with the rest of his class,” Lydia said smugly.

“Sure. I do that though so that if he starts talking about the Nemeton, or when I feel overwhelmed with feels, I can divert his subject back to schoolwork. I do all those things, even though it’s hard on me and my mind is constantly tripping over every thought and emotion I have, just to remain present without wanting knife myself or them.” Stiles put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Lydia, a party where I am the center of attention is a terrible idea.” He let out an awkward laugh and dropped his hands into his lap. “The only reason I know that I can make it through Prom with you is because I’ll be living out a fantasy I had since I was a little kid and I can focus on the happiness of that dream being realized. I don't care if that's pathetic.”

Lydia smiled widely. “That’s cute, but I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Then no Prom date,” Stiles said simply, shrugging.

Lydia glared for a moment, but then her features softened. “Listen, it isn’t just me that wants to have this party for you, Stiles. Scott, Isaac, Danny, especially Danny now that he’s ‘in the know’ and understands how much help you've been to everyone, they all want to celebrate your birthday with you, to honor you. In fact, you need to just agree to me throwing it because otherwise you’re going to get a surprise party, and I know you really don’t want Scott to throw you one of those.”

“A surprise party?” Stiles asked, shocked. “Scott knows I hate surprises!”

“Yeah, well he’s just worried about you and thinks if he does something drastic like that you'll see how much he cares and hang out with him more, or something like that. You’re lucky that I overheard him talking about it to Danny at lunch. I interrupted him and told him that I’d already began planning your party and that you knew all about it. He tried so hard to convince me to stop planning it and let it be a surprise instead, but I came out on top.”

Stiles sighed and raked his hands through his hair. “I don’t like this.”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll help you be fine.”

“I don’t want a big party, Lydia,” Stiles firmly spoke. “If you do this, I want something small. I don’t want you to invite the whole Lacrosse team or…”

“Okay,” Lydia readily agreed. “It’ll be an intimate celebration. I’ll just invite our closest friends and your dad and Scott’s mom. Will that work?”

“I guess.”

Lydia pressed her fingers against Stiles lips and forced them into a smile. “Be happy, Stiles.”

Stiles batted her hands away and huffed. “I’m trying.” He really was, but it wasn’t easy when nearly every emotion he had needed to be snuffed out, or felt unnatural and forced.

TBC in Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lyrics taken from Lil' Wayne's Prom Queen


	2. 18 and Life

**Arrival  
Chapter Two: “Eighteen and Life”**

_Lines form on my face and hands_  
 _Lines form from the ups and downs_  
 _I'm in the middle without any plans_  
 _I'm a boy and I'm a man_  
 **Tuesday, April 8, 2014**

Stiles had set his alarm for 6:03 a.m., even though he wasn’t a morning person, preferring to wake up with just enough time to shower, brush his teeth and get to school. There was a reason behind his early rising and for once it wasn’t because he woke up from a nightmare and figured it was pointless to try to sleep.6:03 a.m. was the time he was born and his mother used to wake him up at that time on his birthday each year. She would sing her own rendition of the birthday song, one she’d written for Stiles while she was pregnant. After coaxing him out of bed, she would kiss him all over his face, the number of kisses equaling his age, plus one for good luck. Then she’d walk with him downstairs into the kitchen. His father had usually left for work by that time, but on Stiles’ birthday, Sam would go in late and they’d all have breakfast together. Each year, his birthday breakfast consisted of his mother’s secret recipe for buckwheat pancakes, piled high with homemade strawberry syrup, whipped cream and a number candle depicting his age on the very top. His stomach would rumble and his mouth would water as his father lit the candle and his parents would then sing to him the traditional birthday song before they all dug in to their breakfasts.

The first time his mom got sick, Stiles was seven years-old, but his parents concealed the truth of her sickness from him. Stiles was extremely perceptive and intelligent, but he’d been told that his mother suffered from mono and being the inquisitive child he was, he read about the disease at the library and was satisfied when he learned that his mother would get better, but would be sick for a while. What Claudia really had was Stage 1 Gastric MALT Lymphoma. She’d responded to the antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors, the Lymphoma decreased greatly in size and she went into remission three months later. The second time his mother got sick, there was no way that Sam and Claudia could cover it up by saying she had mono. The Lymphoma had come back and reached stage four, which required radiation, chemotherapy and other aggressive treatments.

Stiles’ tenth birthday was the first that his mother didn’t wake him up by singing to him. Knowing that his mother rarely left her bedroom, Stiles had set his alarm clock for the time of his birth. That morning, his father had already left for work; he’d been leaving earlier and earlier each day so that he could get home as soon as possible to spend time with Claudia and Stiles. She hadn’t responded to treatment and they found out a month prior that the cancer had spread to various parts of her body and his parents had explained to him that Claudia wasn’t going to get any better. As smart as Stiles was, he was equally as strong and though he was terrified of losing his mother and cried often where she couldn’t hear him, he became his mother’s protector and gave her constant care and love, the way she always did whenever he was sick.

After shutting off his alarm clock, Stiles sat up in bed and faced the windows, thinking of the past. It was still dark outside, sunrise wouldn’t come for another hour, but far away on the horizon, there was a tiny brush stroke of pinkish light. His dad told him that he could use today as his ‘official senior skip day’, so Stiles didn’t have to get up and get ready for school. Really, the only reason he was awake so early was because the darkness within him made him crave for a connection to his mother, and he hoped that by engaging in a routine he’d continued each year after death, it somehow might make him feel closer to her.

***

**Saturday, April 8, 2006**

The first thing Stiles did on his tenth birthday was take a shower. He and his father had to be very careful when it came to exposing his mother to germs and it made Stiles feel better to not only wash his hands, but to clean his whole body as an extra precaution. He’d read that often people with weak immune systems due to cancer died because they caught a simple cold that their body couldn’t overcome. After his shower, Stiles quietly checked on his mother and saw she was still asleep, so he went down to the kitchen and made them breakfast. He toasted two waffles for him, and one for his mom, because she couldn’t ever eat very much. He used bottled syrup and canned whipped cream and dug out ten candles from the cake decorating container his mother kept in the pantry. After he poked all of his candles into his waffles, he poured two glasses of juice, put everything on a tray, scrubbed up to his elbows with soap and then walked into his parents’ bedroom. 

Claudia was still sleeping when he entered, looking still and peaceful in a way that usually scared him. Sometimes Stiles could barely bring himself to approach his mother while she was sleeping because she almost looked like she could be dead. This morning though, he could clearly hear the snuffling noise she made when she was in a deep sleep. She told him that it wasn’t snoring, it was snuffling, but Stiles liked to tease her and hear her laugh whenever he told her that he caught her snoring. As quietly as he could, he placed the breakfast tray down on the nightstand. He knew just how he wanted to wake his mom up. He walked to the other side of the room and picked up the acoustic guitar she kept on stand in the corner and climbed up on the bed beside her. He couldn’t tune it without waking her, but as he began playing the song he knew by heart, he knew his mother wouldn’t mind. He sang the tune she usually sang to him and smiled happily when his mother woke up with a smile on her face.

“Good morning,” she said, reaching out with one hand while her other rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Happy Birthday, baby.”

“Thank you, Mom.” There were no kisses yet; Stiles knew that his mother needed a few minutes to wake up before those would come. He scrambled off the bed, placed the guitar back on the stand and then picked up the tray of food. “I made us breakfast.”

“It smells really good,” Claudia said, her voice scratchy, which seemed to be a permanent state now.

“It’s just waffles, but I put good stuff on top,” Stiles replied and helped her get propped up against her pillows.

“I’m sure they’ll taste delicious, Bo,” Claudia said. “I know you probably expected pancakes and I should’ve been the one to sing…”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Stiles interrupted her. He didn’t want to be sad and he didn’t want to make her sad either. “It’s my birthday and I get to start it how I want and this is how I want to start it.”

“All right,” Claudia said, happily and the two of them ate breakfast while Claudia shared a memory with Stiles of his first birthday.

After they ate, Claudia reminded him that because it was his birthday, he got to choose what they did next. Because there was no school, Stiles knew that soon, he could probably go over to his best friend Scott’s house to play. He didn’t want to do that though, not when it looked like his mother was ‘having a good day’, as she referred to very few of them lately. Stiles wanted to ask his mother to play the guitar for him, but he knew she would want to sing too and she hadn’t been able to do that since she came back from the hospital last month. “What did you do for your tenth birthday?” he asked.

Claudia thought for a moment before smiling widely at her son. “My tenth birthday was eighteen years ago,” she told him, laughing. “Most people don’t remember all of their birthdays.”

“Turning ten is a big deal,” Stiles said excitedly. “It’s double digits! No more single digits, ever again! I know I’ll remember this birthday forever and ever!”

Claudia’s smile faltered for a moment and then softened. “I actually do remember my tenth birthday,” she told him. “It was important because of those reasons but also because on my tenth birthday I started a Birthday Wish Book. I still have it somewhere.”

“Can I see it?” Stiles asked, bouncing on the mattress.

“Maybe some other time,” Claudia said. “I was thinking, you and I could make your own Birthday Wish Book.”

“But what is a wish book?” Stiles asked. “I gotta know if I’m gonna make one.”

Claudia shook her head in amusement. “First, we need something that will work for a book.” She reached into her nightstand drawer, pulled out a pen and purple notebook, which she began flipping through. “This is used and has some of my songs in it, but there’s enough paper in here for what we need.” She wrote _Stiles’ Birthday Wish Book_ on the cover, turned to the first unused page and handed him the notebook and pen. “Now, you’re going to write the number eleven at the top and under that, you’ll write ten things you think will be awesome to do when you turn eleven.”

“Are they things I can’t do right now?” Stiles asked, his big amber eyes beaming with curiosity.

“Sure, or they can also be things you think you’d like to do that you haven’t done yet. Maybe things that you think are scary that you might be brave enough to try next year. Or, you can just write something special you’d like to do on your birthday.”

“I get to list ten things?” Stiles asked, excitedly.

“Yes, and then you’re going to do it for when you turn twelve and thirteen…”

“I’m gonna do all my lists now?” he asked, overwhelmed. “That could take forever, Mom. I might live until I’m one-hundred!”

She smirked. “Okay, how about you do it for the next decade, until your twentieth birthday.”

“All right! Cause then I’ll be two decades old, ‘cause I’m already a whole decade today.”

Stiles wasn’t naïve, he’d seen enough, read enough about his mother’s cancer to know that she wouldn’t be around for anymore of his birthdays unless a miracle occurred. He’d wanted to cry while he wrote some of his wishes, truthfully wanting to fill every number with ‘be with my mom’, but he knew that would spoil the day and make her sad. As hard as it was to know that his mother would one day leave him, Stiles had thought deeply about how horrible his mother must feel knowing she would have to leave him and his Dad. He pushed his sad feelings away and concentrated on writing the best wish lists he could.

When they reached his eighteenth birthday, Stiles asked his mother, “What are all the things I can do when I turn eighteen besides get married and be a father.”

Claudia gasped. “Slow down buddy, you don’t need to get married and become a father when you’re eighteen.”

“But you got married when you turned eighteen and you had me,” Stiles told her.

“Right, well… you… you’ll still be a senior in high school for a couple of months,” she treaded carefully. “I think you should stick to other things you’ll be able to do as an adult.”

“Can you help me?” Stiles asked and handed her back the pen and paper. “You were cool when you were young, so you knew lots of cool things to do.”

“I did, did I?” Claudia asked, amused.

“Sure.”

“So you don’t think I’m cool now that I’m old?”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “I didn’t say that, you’re trying to catch me up like you do with Dad when you ask him what pair of your favorite shoes looks the best on you.”

A loud round of laughter erupted from Claudia’s mouth and she seemed to suddenly remember that she hadn’t given Stiles his birthday kisses yet and set to doing just that, making her son wiggle and giggle as she attacked him.

***

**Tuesday, April 8, 2014**

The first rays of the sun began to reach out, streaking themselves across the blue sky and as Stiles recalled that final birthday with his mother, even though he ached for her presence, he felt happy when he thought of it. He’d been a precocious and often obnoxious child, but his mother had loved him, she’d really loved him.

Stiles opened his nightstand drawer, rifled through the things within it until his hand touched the bottom and he grasped the Birthday Wish Book. He really couldn’t remember what his mother ended up writing on the page. The deal was, that Stiles had to keep a promise to himself and to her, to never jump forward in years and read the other wishes. At this point, he figured there could be anything on the page. He browsed through all of the past birthdays, written in his messy handwriting, before finally coming to the entry for his eighteenth birthday. He reached out and traced his mother’s beautiful handwriting, but as soon as he read what was written for number one, he began to laugh. His mom really was cool.

**EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD!**  


_Now that you’re officially an adult, you can…_  


1. _Buy a Cigar._ (Only one and get the kind Dad buys for special occasions. Do not inhale! Trust me on this, it isn’t only because I don’t want you to damage your lungs.)  


2. _Change first name and legally be called ‘Stiles’._ (I’m sorry, Bo. It was a tradition to name the first born male child after their grandfather in my family. Now that you know what it’s like to be the age I was when I had you, and I’m sure you’ve figured out that you were a surprise, you can imagine that I was very willing to do anything to make my dad happy. Please forgive me for throwing your name under the bus. If you choose to change your name, just know, you will always be my beautiful Beauregard, who was finally something my dad and your dad had in common and helped them love one another. I know you don’t remember him, even now as I write this and ask you if you do, you say ‘not really’. If you ever get sad, ask your dad about the first time they met and it will cheer you up.)  


3. _Get a tattoo._ (Have you even thought of doing this since we put it on the list? If you haven’t, DO NOT GET ONE! I regret that silly moon fairy I have on my wrist, you know that I do. Do not make the same mistake I did. If you like a design and you’ve been thinking about it for a really long time, my advice to you is, good luck with the pain!)  


4. _Get a piercing._ (Just your ears, not your cute nose, beautiful eyebrows or anywhere else. Yuk! And none of those Aztec Warrior looking ones! You will regret having a quarter sized hole in your earlobe when you are seventy and your hands shake and you can’t put those gross things in your ears. You will hear a whistle and it will not be from your hearing aid. GROSS! At this point, you’re probably remembering that I had a tongue ring and a belly button ring. You like eating, so don’t get the tongue ring, trust me on this. As for the belly button ring, I’ll leave that up to you.)  


5. _Buy spray paint._ (I don’t know why you’re so excited that I mentioned this to you. It worries me a little bit, but I think maybe you just see it as something cool you can play with. Please don’t play with spray paint. EVER. You can however help your father keep the backyard fence looking white instead of gray, just make even strokes while you spray it.)  


6. _Buy a lottery or scratch-off ticket._ (If you win once, don’t buy more! Be happy you won! If you win a free ticket, give it to someone else. If they win a lot of money with the free one, sue them for your share. You can legally do that now.)  


7. _Skydive._ (I did it for my twenty-first birthday and I loved it! There’s a great place that’s about a two hour drive from here. Maybe they’ll still be there? Feeling like you can fly is amazing! You’re so hyperactive; I think you’ll find it exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time. Take a friend, but remember, they have to be eighteen.)  


8. _Register to vote._ (I think your dad is going to win the election for Sheriff, if he has, make sure that you vote for him when he comes up for reelection. Even if you disagree with him as an authority figure, vote for him and vote in all the other elections too. Don’t ever vote Republican, you probably already know a million reasons not to. Vote for your dad because he’s your dad and he loves you! If you voted for someone else, he’d know you were lying when he asks and it would crush him.)  


9. _Sign yourself out of school._ (Just today. Other than today, please stay in school and only use this freedom if it is an emergency. I know you are very intelligent and I’m sure that you’re in the running for valedictorian and too many absences may give someone else the upper hand.)  


10. _Cash in the savings bonds that were given to you._ (Use the money wisely, use it to skydive and get your tattoo and buy things that make you happy. Please think and rethink about every purchase you make and remember that college is coming soon. I know you probably already have full-ride scholarships to wherever you want to go, Berkley probably, but remember that sometimes unexpected expenses occur and you may need that money for emergencies.)

_Stiles,_  
 _Now I have some wishes and hopes for you on this birthday. I wish for you to come visit me and sing me your birthday song to me, just like you did this/that morning when we wrote this. I hope you know that I love you and wherever I find myself after this, no matter what, I will be wherever you find yourself now. I know that you grew up too quickly, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I hope that you were still able to be the fun, kooky kid who made me laugh whenever I was mad at him and who made me smile more than I ever have in my life. I love surprises, still do, though you probably are old enough to wonder how that’s possible. I hope that you love them too because surprises make the best memories. You were always full of surprises._  
 _I hope that your journey through adulthood is as easy as it can be and that you will always feel like you can talk to your father about anything. I hope you two are best friends and I hope Scott is still there for you too. I hope you find someone to love you for the beautiful, amazing man I know you’ve become. I hope you have a big group of friends, who even just a little bit, help to fill the space I left in your heart and ease the aches I’m sure you find within you today. I wish for you to know what it’s like to be loved and cherished the way your father loves me and the way you love me and I love you._  
 _You are the best child I could have ever hoped for, the best surprise of my life. I’ll love you forever, like you for always, and even when I’m not living, my baby you’ll be._  
I love you, son. Have a wonderful eighteenth birthday.  
 _P.S. Do not get a tattoo dedicated to me in any way. I think that kind of thing is weird. It would be all right if I got one dedicated to you, but not the other way around. I don’t care if that’s what you have your heart set on, please just listen to me. Do that for your mother, all right? If you want to dedicate something to me, you can name your first born after me. Claude or Claudia are fine names._

Stiles clutched the notebook to his chest as he fell face first onto his pillow and wept. The darkness seemed to wait for a while before it decided to invade his emotions and for that he was grateful. By the time it began, Stiles had cried himself out, sobbed until the sun was clearly rising, illuminating his room in a rainbow of colors. With the notebook still clutched in one hand, he reached for his phone and dialed Lydia’s number.

“Yeah?” Lydia answered in a groggy voice.

“Lydia, you’re sick today.”

“Stiles? What… I’m not…”

“Lydia, you’re sick today,” Stiles said again, his voice sounding hoarse.

“You sound sick,” Lydia said worriedly.

“I’m not,” Stiles said, letting out a deep breath. “It’s… I was crying is all.”

“Oh! Shit! I… today is your birthday and… You can’t cry on your birthday! Happy Birthday!”

He laughed. “It’s all right,” he said, and he actually sort of felt like it was. “Listen, I need you to call in sick to school. Will your mom be all right with that?”

“Why? What happened?”

“I… I can’t explain right now. I’ll tell you soon, it’s nothing really bad though. I just need… I need you to call in. I need you to go somewhere with me.”

“Okay,” Lydia sighed. “This isn’t just a ploy to get me to skip because I’ve missed one more day than you have and you want to make sure we’re not even, is it?”

“No,” Stiles laughed, throatily. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll miss school again without you and even it up.”

“What are we doing? I’m going to have to tell my mom why I’m not going in.”

“It’s my birthday, won’t that be enough?” Stiles asked. Lydia’s mother had become very fond of him lately.

“Probably. Wait, this isn’t going to mean we’re going to miss your birthday party, is it? Because I’ve got it planned and everyone is…”

“Actually it does,” Stiles cut her off. “We’re probably going to be gone all day and I might even rent a hotel room, which I can do now that I’m eighteen, because we’re going to have to drive a couple of hours away once we leave town.”

“What? No way! I want to throw you a party, Stiles. You can’t just make something up to get out of this.”

“I’m not making anything up. This is important,” he says firmly.

“Oh god, I’m going to have to call everyone and cancel it. I’m going to have to cancel your cake and…”

“You can bring the cake with us or something,” Stiles said. “As for the party…” He looked down at the notebook and re-read one of the lines his mother had written. “I want you to reschedule it and surprise me.”

Lydia shrieked, “You’re serious!”

“Yes, I am. I want to be surprised.”

“Okay, Stiles, what happened between last night and this morning? When me and Scott left, you were practically asleep in your chair.”

“I’ll tell you about it when you get here. Go ahead and call Scott, tell him he can plan the date and it’ll surprise me.”

“You are totally sure. Once I tell him, you’ll be locked in and no matter what you say or do, I’m not going to tell you when it is.”

“I know. I want to be surprised.” He really did.

TBC in Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Lyrics taken from Alice Cooper_  
> 
> A lot of this chapter was inspired by me reading "I Love You Forever" to my nephew, oh the feels!  
> This picture in particular from the book really made me just see Stiles and Claudia.  
>   
> Sometimes, I'm all about saccharine angst. Derek, the Sheriff and other canon characters will be in the next chapter and Stiles will actually make it out of his room, I promise.


	3. Surprises, Surprises

**Arrival**  
 **Chapter 3: “Surprises, Surprises”**

_I’m feeling overwhelmed, overwhelmed_  
 _It’s getting out of line, line, line_  
 _I know I’m not alone_  
 _Just adolescents, you and I_  


 **Monday, April 14, 2014**

Sam Stilinksi tapped the list on the refrigerator and asked in a suspicious voice, “Do you plan on knocking out number three today?”

Stiles shoveled another scoop of Cheerios into his mouth and replied around his mouthful of food, “Nope.”

Sam gave his son a disbelieving look. “I thought you planned to cross off everything on the list during your first week as an adult. Isn’t that what you said?”

Stiles shrugged and went back to eating.

Sam sat down at the table across from Stiles and stared. “Where is it?”

Stiles dropped his spoon into the bowl, causing drops of milk to fly around the surface of the table. “Where is what?”

“Stiles,” Sam spoke in a bored tone, “the tattoo. Where is it and what did you get?”

“Huh?” Stiles took his napkin and cleaned up the milk. “I told you…”

“You’re not crossing it off to make me feel better,” Sam said. “I know you, kid. The truth is, it’s going to upset me more thinking you got something terrible in some weird place on your body…”

Stiles laughed and picked up his bowl and walked over to the dishwasher. “Dad, I don’t have a tattoo and I don’t plan on getting one. Not yet, anyway. I figured I’d wait a year. Maybe next year I’ll get one.”

“But on your birthday when you showed me the list, you said you were going to complete everything in the first week you were eighteen. You were determined, _determined_ to get everything done by the end of tomorrow. Listen, if the tattoo artist messed up, you tell me where you got it and I’ll make sure they have their license revoked and give you back all the money you paid for it.”

Stiles threw his hands around and said slowly. “I. Don’t. Have. A. Tattoo.”

“Stiles,” Sam groaned, “just tell me the truth.”

“Oh my god!” Stiles gasped, waving his hands around. “I’m actually not lying to you, all right? Do you want me to strip down to my birthday suit and show you how much I’m not lying? Besides, it’s my body, I’m eighteen, I’m an adult and if I did decide to get one, I wouldn’t care what you’d have to say about it because Mom already gave me her blessing.”

There was very little that could bring Sheriff Stilinksi to his knees, but a remark like that would’ve done it if he hadn’t already been sitting. Still, it caused his heart to skip a couple of beats and then there was a beating ache spreading through his chest, the rhythm belonging to and accompanying every melodic, tragic or fantastic memory tethered to Claudia.

Stiles knew that he’d probably said too much, but he usually did. Sometimes though, he felt like it was his job to assault his father with memories of his mother. He was afraid that otherwise his dad would never think of her and would forget all the things Stiles had been too young to hold on to and want to remember. One day, Stiles would make his own list for his father, asking all of the questions he wanted to know about his mother that had been building up since even before they’d lost her. He was sure that if he didn’t give his father these jolts backward in time, his dad would forget all the answers Stiles knew he held captive.

“So uh…” Sam cleared his throat. “What are you plans today?” his tone was forcibly happy. “Before dinner, I mean.”

“Lydia and I are going swimming at Danny’s,” Stiles said, fighting the urge to apologize. He wasn’t an unfeeling brat, it hurt him to see his father struggling to recover from pain he’d knowingly caused him.

“No big plans for your first day of spring break?” Sam asked, surprised.

“Swimming in a heated indoor pool is cool enough,” Stiles said. He grabbed his hoody from where it was draped over the kitchen chair and pulled it on. “See you later?”

“Dinner’s at five, don’t forget,” Sam said. “You can bring Lydia and Danny if you want.”

“I’ll see if they want to come and I won’t forget dinner,” Stiles told him and awkwardly gave his father’s shoulder a pat. “Uh… don’t forget to get a healthy pizza for you.”

“I won’t,” Sam replied.

“You won’t _forget_ ,” Stiles prompted.

Sam rolled his eyes. “Who is the parent, again?”

“Who is the adult who wants to make sure his parent is around to one day see him be a parent?”

“Get out of here or I’m going to buy two healthy pizzas and get sardines on both.”

Stiles scoffed. “You don’t even like sardines.”

“I’ll like them enough just to see you choke them down,” Sam warned.

Stiles laughed and grabbed his keys from the counter. “Right, but you won't be able to choke them down either, you hate fish. See ya later.”

“No tattoos,” Sam called out. “You don’t have _my_ blessing.”

“Okay, Dad!” Stiles yelled back, slamming the front door behind him.

“Thank god you’re finally here!” Lydia announced before she had the door pulled all the way open. She moved to stand against the door, wearing a yellow poke-a-dot bikini that did not distract Stiles from the terrified look on her face.

“Why?” Stiles asked regretfully and forced himself to take a moment to appreciate Lydia’s beauty. He may not be in lust with her anymore, but he was only human and the girl was a goddess. He figured if he had to hear something bad in a moment, he might as well take some pleasure while he could.

“I have some news,” Lydia told him and grabbed Stiles’ wrist, pulling him into the pool house.

“What kind of…” Stiles trailed off as he saw Danny standing behind Lydia, looking worried. “Oh, so it’s really, really, really bad news.” He wanted to fall to the floor that moment and do his best to imitate a three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. This was supposed to be a good, relaxing day. The only thing that stopped him from throwing the tantrum was acknowledging the fact that he didn’t want to crack his head open and bleed all over the imported tiles Danny’s mom raved about. He might not ever be invited back and though Lydia had a pool, Danny's was the only one they could use year round.

“Take a seat,” Lydia told him, pointing to the patio set in the corner.

“Oh god,” Stiles groaned, following her orders as he waved his board shorts around. “Am I even going to need these today? Should I prepare myself for my life to be utterly spoiled by whatever news it is you have to assault me with?”

“Stiles, you might like her news,” Danny said, his tone hopeful.

Stiles flopped into one of the chairs and gestured at Lydia. “When she has _that_ look on her face, she isn’t about to tell me something good. Trust me.”

Danny shrugged and took a seat beside Lydia. “Go on,” he said to her, “you’ve been dying to tell him for the last half an hour.” He looked at Stiles. “She was going to call you and tell you over the phone, but I told her it’d be better for you to hear this in person.”

“Oh my god!” Stiles yelled, his arms flailing around. “Just tell me, Lydia,” he demanded.

Lydia huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Stop being so dramatic.”

“Stop stalling,” Stiles grit out between clenched teeth. “Jesus!”

“Okay, so… I was talking to Allison and she and Scott…”

"Oh my god, did Scott knock our huntress up with werewolf babies? Is that why he’s been avoiding my calls all morning?”

Danny and Lydia both began laughing. “Oh man, I’m totally telling them your mind first went _there_ of all places it could've gone,” Danny teased.

Stiles glared. “What? It’s a valid question that would probably cause the both of you to be so...”

“Sure, if Scott and Allison were actually having sex,” Lydia said.

Stiles sputtered. “Huh? What makes you think they’re not? Scott wouldn't brag about that shit if it weren't true.”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Duh, I'm Allison’s best friend here. When they got back together, they decided to take it slow and that means sex is out for a while.”

“Which is ridiculous,” Danny said, “it’s not like they can un-sleep with one another.”

“News!” Stiles cut in. Shit was bad if it was him who was actually getting people back on topic.

“Right,” Lydia sighed. “So, Scott was going to tell you right away, but he was with Allison and I was on the phone with Allison when he told her, so I volunteered to be the messenger.”

“Okay, okay,” Stiles said, “whatever it is, I appreciate you volunteering, I don’t plan on shooting you.”

“Scott, Isaac and Ethan went for their morning run but the park district’s trail was closed for repaving, so they ended up going to the preserve instead.”

“While they were running,” Danny picked up the story, “they caught the scent of another wolf.”

“They followed the scent and Scott realized that it was the scent of an Alpha,” Lydia said and began to chew her bottom lip.

“So did they fight with the Alpha or something?” Stiles asked. “Are they hurt?”

“They didn’t fight him,” Lydia said, “because it was Derek.”

Stiles' jaw hung open and it only closed when Danny leaned over and did it himself. His heart raced with excitement and happiness at hearing that Derek was back in Beacon Hills, but a split-second later, it dropped into his stomach. “When the fuck did Derek come back to Beacon Hills and how in the fuck is he an Alpha again?” There were a hundred other questions he wanted to ask, the next being, ‘Is Derek okay?’, but he’d wait to ask that after he heard the answers to the first two.

“Derek has been back long enough to have had the remnants of the old Hale house demolished and removed," Danny told him. "He’s now building a new home and Ethan said that by the look of it, construction has been going on for at least a month, but it’s still mostly just a shell. Oh, and Cora is here with him.”

“You’re fucking serious right now?” Stiles asked. “Like you’re not making this up and I’m not dreaming? Derek Hale has been secretly back in Beacon Hills for a month, he’s once again an Alpha and he’s been surreptitiously building himself a new den?”

“Yup,” Lydia said, smiling. “So, before I tell you the rest, do you need to maybe run around the pool with your fists in the air while shouting ‘he’s back, he’s back’, or something?”

Stiles huffed a laugh. “Uh, that would be a big fat fucking hell no! Why would I cheer about him being home when he obviously doesn’t care that any of us even know he’s fucking here?"

“Maybe because you’ve been worried sick about him…”

“And Cora!” Stiles cut Lydia off. “Holy shit! Do you realize that we’ve texted since they've been back and not once has he or Cora told me that they are here? What the fuck?”

“Stiles, I know he’s like one of the hottest men to ever walk the planet, but you really deserve better,” Danny said.

Lydia smacked Danny in the chest. “Of course he does, but he doesn’t need to hear that now. As for Cora, I always thought she was strange, it's not like she tried to make friends with us. But I know you two hung out some, so it is shitty she didn't tell you she was back if she is. Maybe she hasn't been in Beacon Hills as long as Derek has been. You could always text her and ask.”

“No, I don't care about that right now. What I need to know is how the fuck Derek is an Alpha again. That’s what I’d like to hear. I’d like some non-vague answers too if you don’t mind!” Stiles said, exasperated.

“Believe it or not, that is something I have details on,” Lydia said. “Scott said that Derek was more forthcoming with information than he’s ever been.”

“So, how did this miraculous thing occur?” Stiles prompted, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “This has got to be good.”

“It’s a funny story,” Lydia said, her smile turning into a wince. “Or not.” She cleared her throat. “So, after Derek used up his Alpha spark to cure Cora, the spark didn’t disappear, it found Peter.”

“Oh fuck,” Stiles gasped, flinging himself forward and staring at Lydia. “Did Derek kill him again?”

“Unfortunately no,” Lydia told him, sighing. “Peter left shortly after Cora and Derek, I guess he realized that he would never be able to be an Alpha of any pack in Beacon Hills, especially not sharing the same city with a True Alpha who hates him. At some point, he met up with Lisa, he’d once dated her, but her parents basically sold her off as a mate to another pack’s Alpha. Lisa’s mate… the Alpha, he treated their whole pack like slaves and had them so terrified, nobody ever challenged him. She asked Peter for help, said that she would back him and accept him as the pack's new Alpha if he killed her mate.”

“Of course Peter turned tail and ran,” Stiles huffed.

“Surprisingly, he didn’t,” Lydia said. “He came up with a plan that involved Derek and it was Derek who ended up killing the Alpha and taking his power. As soon as the fight was over, the woman accepted the mating bite from Peter and proclaimed Peter her Alpha and asked for the rest of the pack to do the same, which they did.”

“But what about Derek?” Stiles asked. “If he received that Alpha’s spark, that’s supposed to mean that the pack should’ve seen him as their Alpha.”

“Scott didn’t give details about that and I don’t know if he knows,” Lydia told him. “You’ll have to ask Derek, but Scott did say that Derek never planned to be that pack’s Alpha, that he intended to come back to Beacon Hills. He went along with Peter’s plan so that he could be an Alpha once again and bring Cora back home with him.”

“Tell him what Derek told Scott,” Danny prompted. “Tell him.”

“Oh, right…” Lydia smiled gently. “He told Scott that he’d meant what he’d said before, that he wanted them to be brothers and that he planned to do it right this time.”

“Oh, man,” Stiles groaned and put his hands over his eyes. “This is killing me. Killing. Me.”

Lydia laughed. “Why exactly?”

“Good killing or bad killing?” Danny asked. "I mean, ever since you guys told me about all the supernatural stuff, I have a hard time determining when you're either of you are being sarcastic or serious.

Stiles dropped his hands and stared at both of his friends. “This is past killing me,” he told them, “cause I’m dead right now. Just dead. No sarcasm.”

“And that’s because?” Lydia prompted.

Stiles glared. “You know exactly why.”

“I don’t,” Danny told him. “Really, I don’t.”

“Because, as pissed as I am that Derek has been back here for who knows how long, I’m also feeling a stupid amount of other things I really can’t comprehend.” He could though, he knew the names of each and every feeling barreling through him, but he didn’t want to voice them. “All right,” he said, “news has been shared.” He stood up and waved his trunks. “I’m going to go put these on and when I come out, we’re not going to talk about Derek Hale and we are going to swim, splash and dunk one another like the normal human teenagers we are.”

“I’m not sure I’m human,” Lydia said in a confused tone. “Am I?”

“I’m not answering that because there is no way to answer that in a way that will make you not pissed at me,” Stiles told and disappeared into the bathroom. He closed and locked the door behind him and stared at himself in the mirror. “You will not go see Derek Hale,” he told himself. “You will get your trunks on, go swimming and then go home and have dinner with Lydia, Danny and Dad. You will not feel proud of him or sorry for him. You will not feel the need to check on him. Derek Hale is a fucked up wolf-man and he will only make your life more fucked up than it already is. You know this.” He stared at himself a few more moments while he gave his reflection a very stern look, before he felt satisfied enough with his personal pep talk and calmer heart rate. He was going to relax and behave like a normal human. 

There were about a dozen times, or more, probably more like multiplying twelve by one-hundred and that would place the accuracy somewhere in the ball park, so there were about twelve-hundred times that Stiles wished he weren’t completely human. After spending an afternoon reveling in his humanness, he soon realized that he wanted just one of the super senses, if only to use for a few minutes. He’d given Scott free reign to plan his surprise party, knew that one day it would come, but he didn’t expect for it to be on a Monday. Sure, he was down with the surprise part of it, but a little warning would’ve been nice. Just a hint of Scott’s cologne would’ve made him a little bit suspicious. Or hearing more heartbeats inside his home as he walked up the stairs to his house, would’ve made his reaction not be YouTube worthy, because he would’ve been a little bit prepared.

“If that video goes viral, you will be screaming your head off because you’ll be predicting your own murder,” Stiles growled at Lydia, pulling a clean t-shirt on. “And the murder of all our friends downstairs!”

Lydia giggled behind the hand covering her mouth. “You said you wanted to be surprised!”

Stiles grabbed a pair of socks and his black and white Chucks from under the bed because the piss had gone down his leg and into the brand new pair of Vans his father had given him on his real birthday. He sat beside her on the bed and glared as he pulled his socks on. “The whole… ‘Oh my god, I gotta pee, I gotta pee right now, gonna pee my pants,’ mantra I said the whole ride from Danny’s house didn’t make you think that maybe you should save me from utter humiliation? That maybe, just once it would be nice if I could not look like complete dumb ass in front of everybody we know?”

Lydia picked up the damp towel from Stiles’ floor and began rubbing it over his hair. “Shut up. If the video goes viral, you might have the opportunity to be on Tosh and then you might get to meet him and have a… what does he call them? A video re-do or something?”

Stiles grabbed the towel from her and threw it across the room. “It’s a Web Redemption, and I doubt that Tosh point fucking O, will think it’s worthy of one. No, he’ll just put it on his show and everyone will think I’m a bigger fucking joke than they already do.”

Lydia blinked slowly. “You’re _really_ pissed?”

Stiles sighed. “It’s just… it’s _everything_ , all right? It’s the fucking nightmares, the sort-of argument I got into with my Dad this morning, the supernatural darkness that heightens every bad emotion I feel, and it’s… it’s fucking mother fucking people who just leave me here…”

“You mean your Mom and… Derek.”

“I know it wasn’t my mom’s fault, but sometimes I get so angry with her and then I feel so fucking guilty for being angry about her dying!” Stiles shifted closer to Lydia and gave her a one-armed hug. “Today, I threw something in my dad’s face that I didn’t feel guilty about at the time, but when we walked in and I saw him standing there smiling at me, even though I was humiliated for pissing my pants, I felt more mortified by what I said to him this morning than I did from my walk-on surprise role in _Urinetown_. While I was sucker punching my dad, he was planning this party with you and Scott, probably excited about doing something so cool for me and I tore him down the way only _I_ can.”

“What did you say?”

“I basically told him that I didn’t need his blessing to get a tattoo because my mom had already given her blessing.”

“Ah, first of all, you’re not getting a tattoo, right?” she asked.

“No. I’m listening to my mom’s advice.”

“But why would you say that to your dad, then?”

Stiles let out a sarcastic laugh. “Because I’m the world’s greatest son, everyone knows that. Shit, I probably deserve to be publicly shamed on the internet!”

“No, you don’t. I’ll talk to Scott and have him delete it from his phone. I think he was only joking when he said he was uploading it to YouTube.”

Stiles finished tying the laces on his shoes and let out a deep breath. “I don’t want to go down there.”

"Scott only gave me three days notice and I still managed to work my magic and find all sorts of geeky Star Wars decorations for you, so you need to go appreciate them." Lydia stood and held out her hand. “Come on, it won’t be so bad. Plus, there’s cake. I picked it up and dropped it off with Scott this morning, as long as he didn't manage to smash it on the way over, you’re going to love how it’s decorated.”

“But does it taste good?” Stiles asked, taking her hand.

“You’re guaranteed to go into a diabetic coma,” Lydia assured.

“That sounds perfect." He figured that if Scott had already uploaded the video, he could always retaliate with footage from Scott’s fourteenth birthday. Three words: chocolate, butt, stain.

As soon as Stiles and Lydia walked downstairs, Lydia had walked over to Scott, snatched his phone and deleted the video he’d taken of Stiles’ arrival.

“What did you do?” Scott accused as she handed his phone back to him.

“I deleted the video and made sure you hadn’t uploaded it to YouTube,” Lydia said stiffly.

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Scott insisted, frowning. “I was joking.”

Lydia flipped her hair off one shoulder and looked at everyone else. “I advise that all of you delete any pictures you have that might have captured the unfortunate incident or I will have no other choice but to release the video I took of each one of you at the winter ball party…”

“All right!” Isaac interrupted in a high-pitched tone. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began tapping around on it.

“What video are you referring to?” Sam asked in an authoritative tone. “Is it something I need to be made aware of, as the Sheriff?”

“Absolutely not!” Allison said, showing her phone to Lydia. “See the pictures are gone.”

“It wasn’t anything illegal, Mom,” Scott told Melissa.

“With your group, you can see why I’m having a hard time believing that’s the truth,” Melissa told him.

“It’s just extremely embarrassing,” Danny offered, “I promise.”

“Embarrassing doesn’t even cut it,” Ethan added, red-faced. He told Stiles, “I didn’t have my phone out, so I promise there are no pictures of the... incident.”

“What incident?” Lydia spoke in a flippant tone. “I have no idea to what you’re referring, Ethan.” She turned to Isaac and asked, “Do you know?”

“Absolutely not,” Isaac said, flushing. “No clue.”

“Me neither,” Scott agreed in a rushed breath.

“I’m completely confused,” Allison spoke.

“I’m not,” the Sheriff said, eyeing Lydia warily, “but I think I’m supposed to be, for my son’s sake, right?”

Stiles found hard not to laugh at everyone and to not ask about whatever incident occurred at Lydia’s party. He’d been sick with the flu the night of the winter ball and hadn’t gone to the dance or party afterward. This was the first he was hearing of anything ‘scandalous’ going on. His naturally inquisitive mind wanted to ask a million questions, but it would likely ruin the steamrolling damage control Lydia was orchestrating.

“That’s right, Sheriff,” Lydia said, twirling a strand of her hair. “I’m sure you’ve even done something embarrassing you wish weren’t on film, am I right?”

“Actually I tend to be very careful when there are cameras around and…”

“Something involving the neighbors across the street from me?” Lydia asked, cutting him off and giving him a knowing look. “I’m the one who goes through all the surveillance footage from the camera my mom has out on our front porch. Those pugs are adorable from far away, but up close they…”

“I get your point, Ms. Martin,” Sam said, a terrified expression on his face. “Who is ready for some cake?”

“Presents!” Stiles spoke up. He’d been withdrawn for a while, nowhere near as talkative as he used to be, but this was his party so he got to decide what happened first, right? “I want to open my presents first and I think we should eat the pizza before we eat cake.” Plus, he really loved opening presents and he was too excited about seeing what was in each one to eat.

“All right, kid,” Sam said, gesturing to the pile of gifts on the dining table. “Go to it.”

Stiles skipped over to the table with a ‘whoop’ sound escaping his mouth with every step and waited for his friends to be seated around the table. Though Lydia had insisted upon paying when they went skydiving on his actual birthday, she told him she had to get him something else too. Stiles laughed when he saw what was inside the large box. He did a perfect impression of C-3PO as he thanked Lydia. “I’m totally wearing these to bed tonight. These are so awesome.”

“They look just like a pair of feetie pajamas your mom got for you when you were a kid,” Sam told him son in a wistful tone.

Stiles grinned. “I remember them. I made Mom cut the feet off so I could still sleep in them after I got too tall and my feet got too big.”

“Lydia, you have to tell me where you got those because I have to get me some R2-D2 ones,” Scott told her, awe in his tone.

“You’re both such dorks,” Lydia said fondly. “I found them at the Hollywood Inc. store at the mall. I think they even had that bad guy with the jet pack…”

“Boba Fett!” Isaac shouted. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Lydia answered shrugging. “There was a bunch of different ones with the Star Wars logo on the tag. They had the really scary guy with the horns and…”

“Darth Maul!” Ethan yelled and looked like he was about to drool. He told Danny, “We’re going to the mall tonight.”

“I’m going too,” Scott told them and asked Isaac, “you in?”

“Definitely.”

“Before you all go running off to buy things for yourself,” Allison said, “maybe Stiles should finish opening his presents.”

The excited boys all apologized, but Stiles didn’t mind, he completely understood their enthusiasm. He was the one that had exposed Scott, Ethan and Isaac to the magnificence of Star Wars, so it was his fault they’d turned into Star Wars geeks. “What one should I open next?” he asked.

“Ours,” Scott told him. “I mean… the big huge box, that’s from me, Danny, Isaac and Ethan.” Scott began to jump in place. “You’re so going to love it!”

Feeling a rush from Scott’s display of anticipation, Stiles quickly grabbed the large box, ripped the paper off and pulled the packing tape off the cardboard box. “You got me light sabers?” he asked, excitedly, pulling all four of them out.

“Not exactly,” Isaac said.

“Though they are technically _light_ sabers,” Danny told him.

Stiles ran his hands over the bases and then hit the power buttons on each ones. “Holy crap!”

“What are those?” Allison asked, confused.

“They’re sconces,” Scott told Allison. “They’re battery powered and this is how they hang up,” he addressed Stiles, pointing to a small divot on one side of the light Stiles held in his hands. “Awesome, huh?”

“Totally, super awesomely cool,” Stiles said with wonder. “Thank you guys so much!”

“We bought all four colors of the lights,” Ethan told him. “There’s red, blue, green and purple.”

“It’s going to be like a Star Wars disco in my room tonight,” Stiles said, giggling in an almost manic way.

Sam slid his gift box toward Stiles. “Hopefully this will add to the atmosphere.”

Stiles wasted no time in opening the present and he squealed, quite possibly like a little girl, when he pulled out what was inside. He stood up and began hopping around. “It’s a wompa rug! I got a wompa rug! I got a freaking wompa rug!” He turned and hugged his father. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, do you know how long I’ve wanted one of these?”

Sam laughed and rubbed his hand over Stiles’ head. “I know exactly how long.” He looked at the rest of the group. “I’ve been receiving not so subtle hints since he found the website that sold these damn things five years ago.”

“It’s so awesome!” Stiles told him. “You’re the best dad in the entire world!”

“Does anyone else think it’s weird that we’re at eighteen year-old’s party and the whole theme is Star Wars?” Allison asked in a careful tone. Her eyes widened when she saw everyone glare at her. “I didn’t mean any offense,” she said, trying to backtrack. “I… I just thought it was ironic and…”

“It is ironic,” Stiles told her. “But then again, it isn’t. Most of the original Star Wars fans are older than I am. Now if Scott and Lydia had decorated everything in Episode One stuff, sure, that might be a little weird because the whole movie was put together to be geared toward sucking in young children. Thankfully, they chose wisely and went with The Empire Strikes Back, which is also my favorite of the movies.”

Allison nodded as if she understood, but Stiles could tell she had no clue what he was talking about. “Uh… my present to you is the one wrapped in the Christmas paper. Sorry, I forgot to buy birthday paper and that’s all I had.”

“It’s fine,” Stiles said, picking up the gift wrapped with snowflake paper.

“I have to warn you though; you’re probably not going to like mine as much as you’ve liked the others,” Allison said nervously.

“Stiles isn’t picky,” Scott told her, wrapping his arm around her waist. “I’m sure he’ll love anything you bought.”

Stiles was picky, like obsessively so, but no matter what it was that Allison bought him, he would like it because it still sort of amazed him that he got presents from more than just his dad, Melissa and Scott. Stiles hadn’t had so many people at one of his birthday parties since he was in middle school. Back then, parents were required to invite every kid in their child’s class so students wouldn't feel like outcasts if they weren’t invited. Stiles never cared about that and he and Scott usually only ever played together at any party they were invited to or threw, being invited to parties made no difference in their perpetual outcast status. “I’m sure I’ll like it, Allison.”

Allison had wrapped his gift so perfectly, it took him a few minutes to actually get the ribbon torn off so he could get to ripping apart the paper. He opened the lid of the standard shirt box and revealed within was something that was definitely not clothing. It was a soft black leather bound book, the edges turned a bit green, the binding cracked and it had a bit of a herb smell he couldn't define. Stiles thought it was one of the most beautiful books he’d ever seen. He carefully opened it to the first page and gasped at what he saw written there. “Lupus Liber de Lumine?” he read it aloud. “What does that mean? I got the Lupus part of course but…”

“Wolf Book of Light,” Lydia easily translated the Latin.

“What the hell is that?” Sam asked, peering over Stiles’ shoulder with a worried expression.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Allison said. “My father found it a couple of weeks ago at an antique shop in Oregon. It isn’t real, but I thought it was something you’d like anyway.”

“I do,” Stiles said emphatically. He gently flipped through a couple of the pages and stopped on one that had sketches showing an almost a step-by-step process of a man turning into a werewolf. From what he'd seen in many other books, these drawings were the most accurate. “Wow, are you sure this isn’t real?”

Allison nodded. “My father said he bought it because it looked genuine, but after he read through it, he said it was wasn't. He mentioned that there were some grains of truth in it, but he believes it was made by someone who had an obsession with werewolves and had no idea that they actually exist. Most of the text isn't even readable. It's fake text, there's no language it represents or code. It's just filler.”

Stiles knew that Allison thought she was telling the truth, but as surely as he’d felt the spark that allowed him to use mountain ash, he felt the same spark growing within him as his hands touched the pages of the book. “He just let you give this to me?” he asked with disbelief.

“I figured you’d like to have it.”

Hell, yeah!" Stiles said. "I can't wait to read it," he added quickly, "even if it isn't real." 

"I don't think that's a good idea," the Sheriff said. "That book looks awfully old to be a fake."

Allison gave the man a reassuring smile. “My father had some contacts look into its origins and they too said that it was a fake. It's an interesting book for the time period it was written in, but it's nothing more than half-spun fairy tales. He said he didn't mind if I gave it to Stiles because he was going to throw it out. Still, just to be on the safe side, I took it to Deaton and he said that Stiles would be perfectly safe with the book.”

Stiles didn't feel like the book would harm him, but he wasn't sure that it was 'safe' either. He suddenly felt the heavy pull of darkness cascade down his spine and thrum in his fingertips. As gently and discreetly as he could, he closed the book and placed it back in the cardboard box it came in. “Thanks, Allison,” he said, forcing a normal tone of voice. “It’ll be cool to look at.” He’d have to go see Deaton soon. He knew how stupidly ominous the man could be, and just because the Vet said that he’d be safe with the book, it didn’t mean the book itself was safe. He knew for damn sure that what he had already found inside of it was more accurate than any book he owned on werewolf mythology or anything he’d ever found while searching the deep dark recesses of the internet.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this,” Sam groaned, shaking his head. "Talking about supernatural stuff as if its completely normal just isn't _normal_. I'm surrounded by beings who are in fact out of fairy tales."

“Believe me,” Melissa said, moving toward Sam and placing her hand on his arm. “I understand how you feel. But it is our normal now.”

Wanting to move away from all negative emotions as much as he could, Stiles reached for the small wrapped present he was certain was a gift card. “Who is this from?”

“That’s from me,” Melissa said. “But you’d know that if you read the little gift tag,” she said fondly.

Stiles grinned at her while tearing off the paper. “Awesome!” He pumped his fists in the air. “Fifty bucks for Olive Garden! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he told her.

Melissa laughed. “You’re welcome, Stiles.”

Stiles looked at the boxes of pizza on the table and said, “You know, we could always save the pizza and take a trip to…”

“Not happening,” Sam said and lifted the gift card from Stiles’ hand. “You and everyone else are going to devour this pizza before the end of the night. I will not have temptation sitting in our fridge.”

"Okay,” he grumbled. “There better be a meat lover’s pizza.”

“As if I’d ever buy you anything else.”

Stiles still felt the prickle of black anticipating the moment he’d be weak enough to let it come forth, but more than that, he felt tingles of happiness, light zipping around within him. He knew that it was due to being surrounded by all of his friends and was glad that other than the surprise pee incident, he hadn’t felt like running and hiding in his room, not once. He only wished that he could include Cora and Derek in on his happiness too.

TBC in Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lyrics by Incubus for the song Adolescents


	4. Naturally

**Arrival  
Chapter Four: “Naturally”**

_We'll make the scene about a man that's sad and lonely_  
 _And begging down upon his bended knee_  
 _I'll play the part and I won't need rehearsing_  
 _All I gotta do is act naturally_  


Stiles stared at his cake with a look of horror. “That isn’t the Millennium Falcon.” He hadn’t meant to whine about it, but yeah, he did. Surely it was his place to moan about being given a girl’s birthday cake for his eighteenth birthday party, right?

Nobody really cared about how childish his whining was though because they were all laughing at the image on the cake.

“That isn’t the cake I ordered,” Lydia said, once the laughter died down. “I… I don’t know how…” She gave Scott an accusing glare. “You switched them!”

Scott waved his hands in front of him. “I didn’t switch out the cakes. You may have planned most of the party, but I’m the one who told you to specifically get that picture of the Millennium Falcon on the cake. You wanted to put one of his baby pictures on it.”

“Aww that would’ve been cute,” Allison said.

“It wouldn’t have been any worse than this cake,” Stiles grumbled.

Lydia turned her attention to Melissa. “Mrs. McCall, did you have this cake in the fridge and it _accidentally_ got switched?”

“There weren’t two in the fridge when I got it out to bring it over,” Melissa said. “It was just this one and I never looked inside the box.

“Neither did I,” Lydia said, physically deflating. She gave Stiles a desperate look. “I swear this wasn’t meant to be a joke. I wanted this to be the best birthday you’ve ever had. I wanted it to be perfect.”

“It is,” Stiles said and put his arm around her waist. There was no way he could let Lydia beat herself up about the mistake.

“The picture Scott picked was the same one of that poster you have in your room. You would’ve loved it.”

Stiles looked at the cake in front of him and shrugged. “We don’t know the flavor so it’ll be a surprise and the design will be memorable.”

“Yeah,” Lydia said, perking up a little bit. “I guess.”

The cake came from Woodson’s and it was Stiles’ favorite bakery, so he knew that no matter the flavor, it would taste like heaven. “Obviously some mystical fairy lover went a little crazy, but it’s not too bad. Oh, I bet some twelve year-old girl was having a fairy themed party. Now she’s going to have to make do with the Millennium Falcon.”

“It isn’t so bad,” Allison said. “I wouldn’t mind having a cake like this.”

“Me neither,” Danny said, his dimples flashing. “I love fairies”

“And there’s a Kingdom,” Ethan said. “That’s cool.”

“And there’s a moon,” Scott said.

“Moons are cool?” Isaac asked, shrugging.

Stiles rolled his eyes at all of them. “I’ll make sure I buy each of you a cake with those designs on it for your birthday.”

“All right, all right,” Sam said. “Let’s get the candles in the cake.”

“I’ll do the honors,” Melissa said and began to circle the cake with them.

Isaac’s phone began to ring and he grabbed it from his pocket. “Don’t light the candles yet,” he said. “That’s Derek.”

Stiles’ heart rate picked up just a little and he briefly worried that Scott or one of the werewolves would notice, but nobody was paying attention to him.

“They’re about to pull up,” Isaac said and glanced at Stiles. “It’s cool, right?”

“Who is with Derek?” Stiles asked.

“Cora,” Isaac said. “Do you mind if they come?”

“Mind?” Stiles asked, his voice rising in pitch. “No, no, I don’t mind at all. They’ve only texted me and called me, but never once told me they were actually in the same damn town. Sure, I don’t mind if they…”

“Stiles,” Isaac interrupted. “Can they come or not?”

Stiles sighed. “Fine. But tell them that if they didn’t bring me a birthday present they’d better have some cash on hand instead.”

“All right,” Isaac laughed and went back to texting his reply.

“So it’s a birthday party and a welcome home party,” Danny said.

“Except they’ve been home for a while,” Lydia pointed out quietly.

“Yeah.” Stiles croaked, feeling the creep of darkness slither up his spine. “But whatever. The more the merrier.” He faked a smile and pushed away the bad feelings within him.

“I need to pee,” Stiles muttered as his father walked toward the door. He tried to look casual as he made his way down the hall toward the bathroom, but he bumped into the potted plant in the corner and it crashed to the floor. Panic rose within him as he stared at the mess he’d made and the ceramic pieces that had been crafted by his mother. He had destroyed her last piece of art. It had been a gift to his father for their anniversary, she’d made it in one of the many classes she took to take her mind of the cancer that ate away at her body. “Oh god!” Stiles doubled forward.

“Dude,” Scott said, worried, pulling Stiles upright. “You all right?”

Stiles stared at Scott and absorbed the warmth his hands on his arms offered him. He was cold, almost all the time, which seemed to make the dark thoughts spread quicker, but he felt the abating and placed one of his hands on Scott’s shoulder. “I… Yeah.”

“Stiles,” Sam said, his hand paused on the door knob. “Don’t worry about it; I can glue it back together. I have before.”

“Before?” Stiles asked, his thoughts jumbled.

“I’ve broken it dozens of times,” Sam said and turned the handle. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll clean it up,” Melissa offered.

“That can wait until after the cake,” Sam said, opening the door.

Stiles wanted to go with his original plan and flee to the bathroom, but the moment he saw Derek standing on his porch, the will to move left him. Scott let him go and Stiles felt the loss of his warmth for a moment, but that abruptly ended the moment his eyes took in Derek. Stiles really didn’t want to have all the confusing hormones raging through him just because he’d simply looked at Derek Hale, but his body didn’t give a shit what his mind wanted and he felt it heat up all on its own. Many times Stiles cursed the werewolf for looking so perfect, but it was like time without seeing Derek in the flesh had intensified the attraction.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Lydia whispered, now standing beside him.

It was a good thing that everyone else seemed to be loudly greeting Cora and Derek, because otherwise they would’ve heard what Lydia said and noticed the caught expression on Stiles’ face. Stiles didn’t like protesting too much, it made him feel even more pathetic than he already did for secretly lusting after the werewolf. 

“Happy Birthday, Geek!” Cora announced, bouncing over to him. She handed him a gift card to Beacon Café. “It’s supposed to be from Derek too, but I’m totally the one who dealt with humans to buy it.”

Stiles laughed. “Well thanks for dealing with humans for me.”

Cora smiled as if Stiles had given her the greatest compliment in the world and then grabbed his hand. “So, show me all the crap your friends got you.”

“We were about to do the cake,” Lydia said pointedly, “before you two interrupted.”

“We can go,” Derek spoke up, coming to stand behind Cora.

Stiles met his eyes and narrowed his own. “But would you come back?” he asked. “Because I was under the impression that you’d left town and hadn’t been back but you’ve been here for who knows how long.”

Derek looked momentarily sheepish before that expression turned into a scowl. “I’m still a Hale and the Alpha of Beacon Hills. I’m not required to announce my presence to another Alpha, or anyone else.”

“A friendly hello would’ve been nice,” Stiles said. “I mean… that is if we were ever friends.” He glanced at Cora. “You both showing up at my birthday party would suggest that, but hiding out the whole time you’ve been here…”

“We just got here late last night,” Cora said, shaking her head at him. “The last time we Skyped was four days ago and we were laughing our asses off watching Sifl and Olly together. What’s crawled up your butt since then? I didn’t expect hostility from you.”

“That might be my fault,” Ethan piped up. “I uh… I may have said something about the remodel you’re doing on the house.”

Cora crossed her arms over her chest. “What does the remodel have to do with your crappy attitude?”

Stiles was beginning to feel like an ass, but it wasn’t his fault that he was led to believe that Derek and Cora had been in town for longer than they actually were. “Ethan said the construction was pretty far along.”

“It is,” Derek said. “You should know that almost anything can be accomplished over the internet or over the phone.”

“Plus, it was Peter who was here when the demo was done and I doubt any of you wanted to hear from him,” Cora said.

“You’re right about that,” Lydia replied.

“Seconded,” Scott agreed.

“Well,” Stiles crossed his arms. “I didn’t know that you knew about that type of communicating, Derek. Last I checked you were still amazed that laptops were a thing.”

Derek rolled his eyes and gave Stiles a tiny smile. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Obviously,” Stiles said and felt his edgy nerves recede.

“Enough drama,” the Sheriff spoke. “It’s time to eat cake.”

“After I blow out the candles,” Stiles said and pocketed the gift card he’d been handed. “And you’d all better sing to me.”

“I’m not singing,” Derek told him.

“Sour...”

Cora clamped a hand over Stiles’ mouth and whispered in his ear, “Don’t say it.”

“Whose got a lighter?” Sam asked, looking around.

“I don’t,” Ethan said, patting his pockets.

“Me neither,” Danny said.

“I don’t,” Scott told him.

“I do,” Derek said and produced a blue Bic from the pocket of his extremely tight black jeans.

“Then you do the honors,” Sam said.

As Derek crowded in next to Stiles, their sides pressed together, making it extremely difficult for Stiles to breathe.

“Don’t hold your breath yet,” Scott advised.

“That’s a lot of candles to light,” Allison said, laughing. “We should’ve bought two number candles instead.”

Stiles laughed as he watched some of the wax melting down onto the cake as Derek struggled to get all eighteen lit without burning himself. The melting wax began to obscure the picture a little bit, but he thought that probably made it better. Finally, once Derek was finished, everyone began to sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song. Stiles was acutely aware of the fact that Derek wasn’t singing, but he did still have his body pressed against him and that warmth was intoxicating. He also felt all the love that was coming from every single person in the room, all of their eyes on him. It was weird; being the center of attention, without anyone giving him annoyed looks. He figured that it probably had a lot to do with the fact that they hadn’t been together as a group, as a pack, in a long time.

A lightness he didn’t know he’d missed spread through his body, accompanied by a foreign buzzing feeling, a bit like how he felt inside when he’d completed the mountain ash line but the strength more akin to how he felt when he held the book Allison had given him. Stiles gazed at each and every person, lastly looking up at Derek who like the rest was smiling, but Stiles saw a blue-tinted light flicker in his eyes. The light wasn’t like the color Derek’s eyes became when he was a Beta wolf, the light Stiles saw flickering encompassed all of Derek’s eyes. There was a deep pain that Derek carried, years of loneliness and guilt that Stiles could feel transferring into him the longer he stared. The buzzing stopped and the darkness inside him grasped onto the empathetic pain, but Stiles fought it. His eyes landed on the cake again, mesmerized by the ring of flames and the sizzling buzz began again. 

The singing ended and it was time for Stiles to make a wish. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and the sizzling seemed to come together in one spot. It tickled around the base of his spine, crawled around his belly button and then covered the darkness in his chest. He could vaguely hear his father telling him to make a wish, but he was suddenly at a loss as to what he could wish for. Yes, he wanted the darkness to go away, but no childlike wish could ever cure it. Instead, he thought of everyone around him and how he wanted them all to be happy, especially the one person who he knew fought a darkness that was far more prevalent than his own. He mentally reminded himself that wishes didn’t come true, but that didn’t stop him.

‘I want something to look forward to that will help me focus on the light and I want the same for Derek. I want Derek…’ Stiles’ body sprung forward and his hips knocked into the table. Stunned, it took him a moment to realize Scott had hit him hard on the back. “What the… what hell, man!” He turned and glared at his best friend.

“Dude!” Scott said. “I thought you were going to pass out, your heart was racing and you were turning blue! You didn’t hear us and you didn’t feel Derek shaking your arm!”

Stiles looked down at his left arm and saw that Derek was still holding on it, just under his elbow, and now that he was aware of it, his skin tingled in response. He blinked and looked around and everyone saw that had frightened looks on their faces.

“Son, were you in a waking nightmare or something?” Sam asked cautiously.

Stiles backed away from the table until his back encountered the wall behind it. This was type of attention he really didn’t like. It wasn’t like the pack to be so quiet and focused on him. “It wasn’t… It was not a nightmare.”

“Stiles, it’s okay,” Lydia said softly, moving around Scott to get closer to him.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Stiles said. “I… I don’t know… I mean, I really have no idea what happened.” He didn’t want to explain to everyone else how he’d felt because they were already looking at him as if he were an injured animal. “Seriously, I was just thinking about stuff and wishing really hard. My wish…” He gained a little ease back and huffed at Scott, “You interrupted my wish.” He pointed at his cake. “I even managed to blow out every single candle, but I didn’t get to complete my wish so now it isn’t going to come true.”

“You may not have blown out any if he hadn’t hit you,” Sam said, still worried. “At first we thought you were just kidding around.”

“But then… Honey,” Melissa spoke in a gentle tone. “Derek was shaking your arm and telling you to blow out the candles, but you wouldn’t. You just kept staring at the cake.”

“And you smelled weird,” Ethan added.

“You smelled off,” Derek said. “We could all smell it.”

“Including us humans,” Danny said, frowning.

“I was happy,” Stiles scoffed and laughed. “I was really fucking happy and that smelled off to you guys? That’s just sad.”

“It wasn’t happiness,” Isaac said. “It wasn’t a feeling scent.”

“It was natural,” Ethan said. “Like some kind of earth scent.”

“I can’t figure out what,” Scott said, sniffing Stiles. “It’s gone.”

“I knew the smell, I was connected to it,” Derek admitted.

“I can call my Dad,” Allison suggested. “He might know if there’s any lore surrounding birthdays and supernatural occurrences.”

“That isn’t necessary,” Stiles said firmly, “but thanks.”

“Okay, okay, now I’m beginning to understand why you didn’t want to tell me about this supernatural stuff,” Sam said, his tone rising. “You’re saying you felt happy, but all the werewolves in this room smelled something weird…”

“Natural, familiar,” Cora cut in. “I think I had a little connection to it too.”

“What the hell!” Stiles yelled. “Nothing happened. I was just thinking happy thoughts. That’s all. Please can you all chill out? This is my birthday party and I’d like to be able to enjoy the rest of it.”

“You sure you’re all right, son?” Sam asked, his pitch a hair softer than before. “I know that sometimes you say you are when you really aren’t and if this is something supernatural and you’re just afraid of worrying me, you should know that I’m already worried so it really won’t matter.”

Stiles needed to talk to Deaton. Yes, what he’d felt maybe could be classified as supernatural, but hadn’t all the wolves agreed that what they’d smelled was **natural**? If so, then it couldn’t be something that he needed to worry about, he just needed information. “I promise, Dad, I’m all right.”

“All right,” Sam said, sighing. “But you’ll let me know if that changes, immediately.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“As one of the non-supernatural beings here, can I suggest that we cut the cake?” Danny asked. “We’ve been talking about eating it for hours and I’m about to leap across the table and faceplant in it if I don’t get to taste it soon.”

Stiles offered Danny a bright smile as a thank you and picked up the cake knife from the table. “To make sure that doesn’t happen, I will give you the second piece,” he told him and began cutting.

“You’re sure you’re going to be all right on your own tonight?” Sam asked, putting his gun in his holster.

“Dad, I’m fine. If the werewolves believe it and can without a doubt tell when I lie, shouldn’t you?”

Sam looked thoughtful for a moment. “What if that’s just because you truly believe you’re fine but you’re not?”

Stiles laughed and threw a throw pillow from the sofa at his father. “I’m just going to sit here and play Halo for the rest of the night.” He was also going to start looking at the Lupus Liber de Lumine, but he knew that if he mentioned that, his father would worry more than he already was.

“I know you used to have a crush on Lydia, but you’re just friends now, right?” Sam asked.

“Why?” Stiles laughed.

“Because if you wanted to call her and ask her to stay the night, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Stiles laughed harder. “You do realize that we totally slept in the same hotel room after we went skydiving, right?”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Sam said, eyes narrowing.

“Fine, yes we are only friends and that is the way it will remain forever.”

“Because there is someone else you like?” Sam guessed.

“What?” Stiles paused his game. “What gave you that idea?”

“Derek.”

“Derek!” Stiles gasped. “What? Why? What did he say to you? Did he say something about me? Did he ask your permission to date me or something because he thinks you’ll kill him if we do? You’re not going to though because I’m eighteen and I can be with whoever I want. Not that I want to be with Derek. But if I did, he shouldn’t be talking to you about me before talking to me about us because that’s just not cool. Not cool at all!”

“Stiles!” Sam walked over to stand directly in front of him and put his hands on his hips. “If I don’t want you seeing Derek Hale, you won’t be seeing Derek Hale. You are still my son and until you have enough money to support yourself, you will not date anyone I don’t approve of.”

Stiles put his hands over his face and screamed, “My life sucks! Derek Hale likes me and you told him he couldn’t date me!”

“I’m about to make it suck even more, unfortunately it seems,” Sam said dryly. “Derek and I didn’t talk about you at all. I had no idea that you felt so strongly about him until all of _this_.”

Stiles peeked at his Dad through his fingers. “Huh?”

“I detected a spark, a _very_ small spark between you two when he first walked in. I also saw the way you two bickered the entire time you ate cake and it reminded me of the way your mom and I used to fight.”

“Before you got together?” Stiles asked, dropping his hands to his lap.

“And after,” Sam said wistfully and smiled. “It isn’t that I don’t approve of him, but he isn’t like you, Stiles. I don’t know him well, but what I do know isn’t good.”

“Derek is a good man,” Stiles said. “I wouldn’t be friends with him if he weren’t.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, kid. Derek’s had a really hard life and it doesn’t take a Sheriff whose trained in figuring out what people are hiding to know that he has a lot of secrets. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“But I know his secrets,” Stiles said. “I know that Kate abused him…”

“More to the point, Stiles. Derek may be an adult, but he’s also a victim of sexual abuse and he was younger than you are now when it happened. His most recent fling was with someone who tried to kill off his one remaining sane family member and murdered many innocent people all the while trying to get him to help her succeed in her plan. I see that he interacts differently with you than he does from the others, but he’s still guarded in a way you can never really know and understand.”

“I know,” Stiles whispered, “but I don’t care.” The pressure around his heart started to beat in time with its rising rate and he knew he had to change the subject immediately because the last thing he wanted was to be alone with it. “For now, we’re friends and I’m all right with that, okay?”

“I want to know if that changes,” Sam said.

“All right. So, what’s your shift?”

“I’m working nine to eleven, then I’m off for two days. Maybe we can go fishing if the weather’s good.”

“Cool,” Stiles said. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Be safe.”

“It’s the total eclipse tonight, Dad. Nothing supernatural can happen during it.”

“To werewolves, and only as long as it lasts,” Sam said. “Who knows what other crap is going to go on in this town?”

“Touché’.”

Stiles waited a couple of hours after his father left, playing video games until he could no longer resist the temptation. He mentally gave just cause for reason to stop playing and instead go after the book. Playing video games for three hours straight was bad for his eyesight, but he quickly scratched that because reading right after wasn't going to do him any favors. He was thirsty though and his bottle of water was empty. He had to get up to get a new bottle of water anyway, so he might as well change activities too. He also had to pee and his father didn't like for anyone but guests to use the downstairs bathroom unless absolutely necessary. If he was going upstairs to take a leak, he might as well find something to do up there. He'd planned to watched the Total Lunar Eclipse anyway, and though there was still a half an hour before anything interesting would happen with it, he might as well get situated outside, be sure that he had a good view of the Southern sky. Really, there wasn't much to do while he waited and reading a book someone had told him was safe in his hands didn't seem like such a bad idea. Decided and determined, Stiles headed upstairs to his room. He picked the Lupus Liber de Lumine up from his desk and it thrummed with energy the moment he held in it in his hands. During the climb outside onto the pitched roof, he felt the energy grow stronger. The leather felt almost like it was magnetized to his skin. Whoever Chris had taken the book to, they hadn't known what they were really holding. Then again, neither did he.

It was time to find out.

TBC in Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lyrics taken from the Song, Act Naturally by The Beatles


End file.
